Create a simple Pier

Create a simple pier on the main girder.

The respective menu item is only available on girder segments. The chosen girder segment is girder where the pier will be connected to.

The geometrical position of the pier is defined by a connection point. This position refers to the cross section before or after at the segment point of the reference segment.

The dialog provides graphical selection of both, the segment point (station) at the main girder and the connection point in the respective cross section.

A pier has no real but an imaginary axis in vertical direction. The coordinate system is given by the coordinate system of the connected main girder. Analogously to the main girders, the cross sections of the pier is considered against the "axis direction", i.e. against the height. The horizontal axis of the cross section is the cross axis of the main girder and the vertical axis of the cross section points against the axis direction of the main girder.

The parameters which specify the pier are:

Setting	Description
Girder	The main girder, which the pier is being connected to is the one for which the menu was opened. It cannot be changed again in this window.
Segment point / Station	Segment point of the reference segment. Segment point of the reference segment. Defines the pier position in longitudinal direction. Default: 1. segment point
Side (before/after)	Specifies if the FE-cross section before or after the segment point is being used to define the geometrical position of the pier. Default: "After"
Geometrical position	The geometrical position is defined by selecting a connection point in the displayed cross section.
Rotation / Skew	Additionally to positioning, the cross section may be rotated about the height axis (RM: angle Beta). Default: 0.0
Name	Specifies the name of the new pier. A valid default is given.
Height	The total height, i.e. distance from girder bottom (geometrical position) to the ground plus an optional height upwards (pylon height)
Pylon height	The portion of the height which goes from the girder bottom up to the sky.
Number of elements	The number of elements to be generated for the pier segment. Each element will have the same size (height sub-divided by number of elements). In any case the procedure will add a sub-division point at station 0.0. If the general element size does not allow to reach this position, the respective element will be divided again.
Cross section	Cross section of the pier. Due to simplicity of the input, we support only one-part sections.
1st element	Number of the first element (and node). The step for consecutive elements and nodes is 1. Note, that this simple input requires that a one-part cross section is used for the pier.
Material	Material of the pier.

By the input above, the pier is geometrically determined, but it is not topologically connected to the main girder. That means, the beams of the main girder and the pier are still independent of each other. The connection to the main girder has to be created in the window of the segment points of the pier using the button "Connection".